Danish Wound Healing Biotech Raises €20M to Accelerate US Rollout

diabetic foot ulcer wound healing reapplix

Reapplix, a Danish biotech focusing on developing wound healing technology, has raised €19.8M in equity funding to commercialize a treatment for diabetic foot ulcers in the US.

The company also announced it has received Medicare reimbursement instructions that it will receive an average of €1,420 ($1,623) for each patient in the US that receives its treatment for a diabetic foot ulcer. These ulcers occur in around 15% of diabetes patients and are often hard to heal because high glucose levels can slow the wound healing process.

Investors in Reapplix include Danish VCs Novo Holdings and Vaekstfonden, as well as Swiss North East Health Care, French Lauxera Capital Partners, and German MK Ventures. 

The company’s product, called 3C Patch, is a personalized treatment that allows clinicians to make a specialized plaster containing centrifuged blood cells from the patient. It has been validated in a clinical trial that was published in The Lancet: Diabetes & Endocrinology journal in 2018. It has also been approved in Europe and the US. 

“The new funding is important because, with this significant capital raise, we can plan to a time horizon out through 2021 and into 2022, depending of course upon how fast we press on the accelerator,” Graeme Brookes, CEO of Reapplix, told me.

“In this period, we will focus on building commercial proof of business with our technology in the large and attractive US biologics wound care market.”

Wound healing treatments made up of cell- and tissue-based products such as the 3C Patch constitutes a €1.2B global market, around 88% of which is in the US. Of this market, about 75% is used to treat hard-to-heal diabetic foot ulcers. 

There are 1.6 million cases of diabetic foot ulcers in the US and data suggests that around 60% of those become hard to heal. “The estimated annual cost of diabetic limb complications in the US is €15B ($17B), which is higher than the five most costly forms of cancer. Addressing this unmet patient need and the high cost of care for healthcare systems is extremely important,” noted Brookes. 

In addition to expanding into the US market, Reapplix plans to commercialize the 3C Patch in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia. 

“So far we have been very careful to stay focused on one lead indication with a high unmet need,” explained Brookes. “However, our technology has also had success in other wounds and we may consider building out to other wound indications at some time in the future.”


Image from Shutterstock

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